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ovttian, Luti said ofhis critics, they ~either conftlSed ll tnalicious, or both."
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He added, "Policy people and intelligence analysts perform different iUnctions, but what's important is that they work
together, not that they agree on everything."
Those critical views are hardly universal. John Trigilio, a former DIA official who works with Luti on defense policy
issues, described him as "a straight shooter, professional, honorable," and called the notion that he manipulated
intelligence "ridiculous." Adm. William J. Fallon, who commanded Luti when Luti was skipper ofthe USSGuam,
remembers him as an extremely competent leader who did not skew data.
"I've heard the allegation, and I've kind ofchuckled at it," said Fallon, who recently became commander ofthe Atlantic
Fleet. "I never saw anything along those lines."
Luti's 26-year Navy career was an unusual mix ofsea duty and high-level Washington policy positions. After serving
as a weapons officer for EA-6B Prowlers -- aircraft that jam enern,.y electronics -- he studied strategy and diplomacy at
Tufts University. He went there for a master's degree, "but he was such a damned good'student that we admitted him to
the doctoral program," recalled Shultz, an authority on international politics and military operations.
In the early 1990s, while deputy director ofthe chiefofnaval operations' executive panel, a civilian advisory group,
Luti became interested in the views ofone member, strategy guru Albert Wohlstetter. A mentor to Deputy Defense
Secretiuy Paul D. Wolfowitz, Defense Policy Board member Richard N. Perle and several other prominent
conservative defense thinkers, Woh~stetter became Luti's entree into, their world.
From there, while still in the Navy, Luti became a congressional fellow in the office ofthen-Speaker Gingrich. His time
there, in part spent working on legislation related to arming and training Bosnian Muslims, again brought him into
contact with interventionist conservatives.
"We were talking with people like Perle and.Wolfowitz about doing the right thing in Bosnia," recalled Randy
Schuenemann, who then was a foreign policy aide on the Hill, and later, as a lobbyist for an organization t4at
advocated toppling Hussein, worked with Luti on Iraq issues.
Gingrich, who has stayed in touch with Luti through meetings ofthe Defense Policy Board, described his former
employee as "very smart, very aggressive, slightly impatient, and ... with a very deep feeling that the world is more
dangerous than many ofhis colleagues in the Pentagon, in the services, understand."
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Luti's last major Navy assignment was as captain ofth~ USS Guam, an aging helicopter car.rier with a crew of700.
"Guam was one ofth~ oldest ships in the fleet," recalled Fallon, but Luti kept it in "marvelous condition."
When the Bush administration came into office, Luti was asked to work for Cheney on Middle East policy. A few
months later, he retired from the Navy to take his curre!1t position.
He was in Cairo on Sept. 11,2001, and, with commercial traffic stopped, got back to the United States aboard an Air
Force KC-135 refueling jet. On the way home, he recalled, the plane flew over New York City, escorted by F-16
fighters, and the pilot lowered a wing so those aboard could get a full view ofthe smoke plume rising from the rubble
ofthe World Trade Center.
When the jet finally landed, he recalled, "we had this war on our hands." Since then, he has had a total of12 gays off.
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